Gorakhpur (UP), Sep 5: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said that smart classes were helping erase the divide between the cities and villages, while digital libraries were bridging the gap between the rich and the poor.
He also said artificial intelligence was set to bring about a radical transformation and the state could not afford to stay behind.
The chief minister’s remarks came at an event in Gorakhpur, where he felicitated 81 teachers from the Basic Education and Secondary Education departments on Teachers’ Day.
“I believe that wherever smart classrooms have reached, the divide between city and village has vanished; wherever digital libraries have arrived, the gap between the rich and the poor has been bridged,” he said.
The chief minister said that disparities in education must be eliminated, and noted that technology is the simplest and best medium to achieve this.
“Today, we are rapidly moving in that direction,” Adityanath said.
Referring to robotics and drone technology, he said questions were often raised about whether teachers would remain relevant once these technologies arrive.
“The answer is simple. No one can take your place. Remember, a machine can provide answers, but it does not teach one how to ask questions. It is the teacher who teaches how to ask questions,” Adityanath said.
He acknowledged that AI could provide information in seconds that might otherwise take hours to gather, but pointed out that technology could not impart values.
“AI cannot impart values; only a teacher can instil values,” he said.
Launching a scathing attack on his political rivals, the chief minister said that those who had the opportunity to govern the state not just once, but four times, and the Congress party, which ruled UP for nearly six decades, are the very people trying to question the state’s education system.
“They are attempting to raise questions about the education system by visiting the very dilapidated buildings’ structures that we have already replaced, upgraded, and transformed into ‘balvatikas’,” he said. (PTI)
